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Tester Guide
This guide describes the tasks that you can perform for testing various domains, technologies, and applications. To enable testing, you must configure and enable the environment for testing.
Technical Tester Guide
Typically, a user with the Integration Tester role is also responsible for performance testing. This guide lists all such topics.
Creating and running performance tests
This topic describes how to create, configure, and run performance tests.
Creating performance tests
A performance test is created within a Rational® Integration Tester project.
Log Measurement action (optional)
With the Log Measurement action, you can periodically record custom data, that is, data that is not provided by test engines and probes, as a performance test runs. The recorded data is stored in a database and is used to generate performance charts. Each item of data that is recorded is called a counter. Attributes are used to identify the counters. A UTC time stamp is stored with each set of counters.

Tester Guide
This guide describes the tasks that you can perform for testing various domains, technologies, and applications. To enable testing, you must configure and enable the environment for testing.
- Integration Tester Reference
  This guide provides the topics to help the Integration tester use the product by using the user interface, commands or scripts. This guide is intended for Integration testers.
- Technical Tester Guide
  Typically, a user with the Integration Tester role is also responsible for performance testing. This guide lists all such topics.
  - Creating and running performance tests
    This topic describes how to create, configure, and run performance tests.
    - Before creating performance tests
      Agents (Rational® Integration Tester Agent) are required on the computers that will run IBM® Rational Integration Tester tests and the probes that monitor the systems.
    - Creating performance tests
      A performance test is created within a Rational® Integration Tester project.
      - Execution
        Select the root of the performance test in the configuration tree to display its configuration details, as shown below.
      - Configuring references
        You can configure a performance test to run scenarios, which are collections of stubs, that are available on the IBM® Rational® Test Control Panel domain associated with your Rational Integration Tester project.
      - Configuring probes
        The Probes tab (on the Config tab) is used to configure which probes to run during the test, and where to run them.
      - Adding distributed tests
        You can add distributed tests to a performance test.
      - Log Measurement action (optional)
        With the Log Measurement action, you can periodically record custom data, that is, data that is not provided by test engines and probes, as a performance test runs. The recorded data is stored in a database and is used to generate performance charts. Each item of data that is recorded is called a counter. Attributes are used to identify the counters. A UTC time stamp is stored with each set of counters.
        Logging measurements to the results database
        You might want to periodically record custom data in to a database as a performance test runs.
        Example: Logging measurements to the results database
        In this example, you use a background test and the log measurement action to act as a custom probe for the system under test.
    - Performance tests
      Performance tests are executed in Rational® Integration Tester in the same way and from the same perspectives as any other test resource.
    - Troubleshooting: Running a performance test with a MySQL database
      You can troubleshoot an issue that you encounter while you run a performance test with a MySQL database.
  - View test results
    This topic describes how to work with IBM® Rational® Performance Test Server charts in the Results Gallery perspective.
  - Deploying probes
    A Rational® Integration Tester probe measures variables from a particular component in the system and reports back its findings for processing and storage.
- Integration Tester Guide (Service Virtualization)
  This guide describes the tasks that you can perform for using virtual services or stubs to simulate parts of an environment if the real services are not yet available or because they are difficult or expensive to use. This guide is intended for Integration Testers.

Log Measurement action (optional)

With the Log Measurement action, you can periodically record custom data, that is, data that is not provided by test engines and probes, as a performance test runs. The recorded data is stored in a database and is used to generate performance charts. Each item of data that is recorded is called a counter. Attributes are used to identify the counters. A UTC time stamp is stored with each set of counters.

This action is useful in several cases. First, you can use it to record data from the system under test, acting as a custom probe. A custom probe might be necessary when information is required that is not covered by the Rational® Integration Tester probes; for example, when querying proprietary systems for information.

Another use is for systems where a message goes through several processes before a response is received by Rational® Integration Tester. In these cases, you might want to measure the time that is taken for a single process to provide a response instead of measuring the entire round-trip time between the initial message that is sent from Rational® Integration Tester and that eventual response.

This example shows Rational® Integration Tester publishing a message to a queue and waiting for a response. Using the data that is normally gathered by a performance test, you can see how long it takes for the message to be processed by services A, B, and C. However, if there are performance issues as you increase the load on the system, you do not know whether these issues can be narrowed down to a single service.

Log measurement example

For example, you might suspect that service B is where most of the delay is occurring. To investigate further, you can add time stamps to fields in the message as it passes through the system. Subtracting Time 2 from Time 3 gives you the amount of time that was spent inside service B. Using the Log Measurement action, this information is recorded in the results database, and you can analyze it with the load on the system.

Important: The Log Measurement action must not be used within a timed section. Writing to the results database alters the time that is taken during the execution of a timed section, which skews the timing information.